3 dozen indicted in Atlanta cheating scandal

[CG6468]

3 dozen indicted in Atlanta cheating scandal

By Kate Brumback, Published: March 29

ATLANTA — The former superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools and nearly three dozen other administrators, teachers, principals and other educators were indicted Friday in one of the nation’s largest cheating scandals.

Former Superintendent Beverly Hall faces charges including racketeering, false statements and theft. She retired just days before a state probe was released in 2011 and has previously denied the allegations. The indictment represents the first criminal charges in the investigation.

The previous state investigation in 2011 found cheating by nearly 180 educators in 44 Atlanta schools. Educators gave answers to students or changed answers on tests after they were turned in, investigators said. Teachers who tried to report it faced retaliation, creating a culture of “fear and intimidation” in the district.

The cheating came to light after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that some scores were statistically improbable.

The criminal investigation lasted 21 months, and the allegations date back to 2005. In addition to Hall, 34 people were indicted, including four high-level administrators, six principals and 14 teachers.

Hotlanta's government schools have a problem

[Texacon]

All of Atlanta has a problem, governmentally.

KC

[Freeper]

Howard said the girl’s mother, Justina Collins, knew something was awry, but was told by school officials that the child simply was a good test-taker. The girl is now in ninth grade, reading at a fifth-grade level.

Yeah they really care about children, don't they? 

[docstew]

Yeah they really care about children, don't they? 

Actually, the way most inner-city education works now, I'm surprised she reads at that high of a level.

[zeitgeist]

 

For the DUmp take see this one:

 http://www.conservativecave.com/index.php/topic,85551.0.html

[Mike220]

2005? Obviously it's Bush's fault.

[Chris_]

Ms. Parks admitted to Mr. Hyde that she was one of seven teachers — nicknamed “the chosen” — who sat in a locked windowless room every afternoon during the week of state testing, raising students’ scores by erasing wrong answers and making them right. She then agreed to wear a hidden electronic wire to school, and for weeks she secretly recorded the conversations of her fellow teachers for Mr. Hyde.

In the two and a half years since, the state’s investigation reached from Ms. Parks’s third-grade classroom all the way to the district superintendent at the time, Beverly L. Hall, who was one of 35 Atlanta educators indicted Friday by a Fulton County grand jury.

Dr. Hall, who retired in 2011, was charged with racketeering, theft, influencing witnesses, conspiracy and making false statements. Prosecutors recommended a $7.5 million bond for her; she could face up to 45 years in prison.

New York Times

Unbelievable.  Are there any decent people left that aren't at the mercy of scumbags like these?

[FiddyBeowulf]

The girl is now in ninth grade, reading at a fifth-grade level.

Reading at a 5th grade level in a liberal run city is the same as reading at a 1st grade level every else.